Draws for European Cups

An important day for European soccer today as the knockout round draws for the annual UEFA Champions League and UEFA European Cup competitions were made. Barcelona will try to defend its CL title this year, with the final being played in their main rival’s stadium in Madrid. Interestingly, Chelsea are immediately matched with Inter Milan, a titanic clash. Here’s my ratings for the games. Ratings are made on a 1 to 5 scale, with five being what I expect to be the most intense, quality matchups.
2009/10 Champions League (Team named first is at home in the first leg. Matches are Feb. 16, 17; and March 9 and 10.)
AC Milan (ITA) v Manchester United FC (ENG): ****
Olympique Lyonnais (FRA) v Real Madrid CF (ESP): ***
FC Bayern München (GER) v ACF Fiorentina (ITA): ***1/2
FC Porto (POR) v Arsenal FC (ENG): ****
Olympiacos FC (GRE) v FC Girondins de Bordeaux (FRA): **
VfB Stuttgart (GER) v FC Barcelona (ESP): **1/2
FC Internazionale Milano (ITA) v Chelsea FC (ENG): ****1/2
PFC CSKA Moskva (RUS) v Sevilla FC (ESP): **

One Response

Nitpick: It’s the Europa League. The European Cup is the former name of the Champions League.

I suppose it will be fun to see Beckham return to Man Utd, but only for about 5 minutes before his new team gets thrashed (how are they still in this competition?).

Inter/Chelsea — I feel like we’ve already seen Jose return to Stamford Bridge a couple of times. I can’t imagine this tie being exciting to watch, though they are two top teams.

My money’s on the Bayern Munich v Fiorentina as the one to watch. Those teams are very even with each other, and they don’t grind out awful 1-0 wins either.

Arsenal (my team) are favorites but if they don’t watch themselves (and they probably won’t, the way this season has been going) they could get tripped up.

Champions League matches are on Fox Soccer Channel, channel 660 on Time Warner Cable. (Not sure if Europa League games are aired in the states; maybe on Setanta, which is not on Time Warner.) They usually show one game live at 2:45pm, then delay the other games at 5pm, 7pm, etc. so you can see them all.

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